NEW ORLEANS — Adam Silver met with the media before the All-Star Saturday night festivities began, and addressed a wide variety of topics during his first official press conference as the NBA’s new commissioner.

A polarizing point of conversation among fans has been the sleeved jerseys that debuted last season, and have seen increased exposure this year. While there has been a vocal minority opposed to the look, Silver says that sales numbers prove that the fans approve, and do so in large quantities.

“From a fan standpoint, the greatest indicator is how are they selling, and I’ll say we’re having trouble keeping them in the stores,” Silver said. “There’s enormous demand for those jerseys. Fans like them and I happen to like them, too.”

A bigger issue, perhaps, is when players choose to become vocal in their dislike of the sleeves — particularly when it’s coming from one the game’s biggest stars.

LeBron James blamed his poor shooting on Christmas Day on the sleeves, but Silver reiterated what we’ve known for some time, which is that there hasn’t been any difference in shooting percentages overall in games where the sleeved jerseys have been worn.

“Player feedback has been mixed,” Silver said. “I’ve talked to lots of players who like them. I’ve heard directly from other players who don’t like them.”

“If players believe it has any impact whatsoever on the competition, even if it’s just a perception, we need to deal with it,” Silver continued. “We know that shooting percentages are virtually exactly the same for games in which we have sleeved jerseys and teams in which the guys are wearing conventional jerseys. So I’m pretty comfortable from a competitive standpoint that it’s having no impact.”

While the sleeves may have no competitive impact and the fans are voting with their dollars that they like the style, something that may negatively impact that trend is placing ads on jerseys at some point in the future. Silver said that it’s not something that’s on the immediate horizon, but he does believe it’s coming.

“We’re not close at the moment to including sponsors on jerseys,” Silver said. “It’s something that we’re continuing to look at. I believe it ultimately will happen in the NBA. I think it makes good business sense.”

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Pelicans say rookie guard Frank Jackson won’t make his NBA debut this season after having follow-up surgery to remove residual scar tissue from earlier right foot operations.

The Pelicans say Jackson also received an injection in his foot.

The club says a specialist in New York handled Jackson’s latest procedure.

The Pelicans acquired the 6-foot-4 Jackson through a draft-night trade with the Charlotte Hornets, who selected the former Duke player with the first pick of the second round last summer.

Following the draft, the Pelicans signed Jackson to a three-year contract at the NBA minimum with two years guaranteed, but Jackson needed a second foot surgery last summer to address a setback following his initial surgery last May.

Anyone who watched the Thunder’s win over the Raptors Sunday afternoon in Toronto — especially the final few minutes — thought it was not referee Marc Davis and crew’s finest hour. There were missed calls and three-straight ejections of Raptors players, which all seemed rather hair-trigger (especially coach Dwane Casey, who was tossed for something a fan behind him said).

According to the report, there was only one missed call in the final two minutes: Carmelo Anthony held Pascal Siakam as a pass came to him with 11.7 seconds left, and that should have been called.

What about the play that set DeMar DeRozan off and ultimately got him ejected, the drive to the basket with 33 seconds left (and the Raptors down two) where DeRozan thought Corey Brewer fouled him? The report said that was a good no call:

DeRozan (TOR) starts his drive and Brewer (OKC) moves laterally in his path and there is contact. The contact is incidental as both players attempt to perform normal basketball moves….

RHH shows Brewer (OKC) make contact with the ball and the part of DeRozan’s (TOR) hand that is on the ball. The hand is considered “part of the ball” when it is in contact with the ball and therefore, contact on that part of the hand by a defender while it is in contact with the ball is not illegal.

(I didn’t see it that way, I think the contact was more than incidental, and to me looking at the replay Brewer catches some wrist and impedes the shot in a way that was not legal. Just my two cents.)

The report does not cover the ejections, which are reviewed by league operations but not part of this report.

Three thoughts out of all this:

1) Raptors fans/management/players have every right to feel the calls went against them in this game. As for calls always going against them — as DeRozan complained about after the game — 29 other teams and fan bases are convinced the officials have it out for them, too. I never bought that.

2) The Raptors didn’t lose this game solely because of the officiating. Russell Westbrook was clutch down the stretch, the Thunder were part of it, and the Raptors had other issues, too (Serge Ibaka had a rough game, for example).

3) This loss also does not say a thing about the Raptors in the postseason (even if they went a little too much isolation at the end) — this was their third game in four days, they looked tired and flat at the end. That will not be the case in the playoffs.

Butler is chomping at the bit to return from his knee injury. He sat on the Timberwolves’ bench during their loss to the Rockets last night wearing what appeared to be typical attire for a sidelined player. But dig deeper, and…

Marc Stein of The New York Times:

There's only one @JimmyButler (Exhibit Infinity): Butler sat on the Wolves' bench last night for the first time since his recent injury and word is he wore a distinctly Jimmy item under his blazer and t-shirt … his game jersey